FOPPI

Thanks to a gift from Nancy Burgess, and her dad, Robert Hoth, we now have a 1950 ‘United States Coast Guard Radiobeacon System Great Lakes’ map to add to our collections. The Plum Island Station was one of the synchronized distance-finding commercial radio communications stations (Class C, 20-mile range) that served the bulk-carriers (iron ore, coal, petroleum, cement and limestone) boats and freighters on the Great Lakes. It was established May 3, 1940 and discontinued in 1982. The Plum...

Tim Fiest, Pat Nelson, Jon Wall on THE SHORELINE Earlier this summer, Pat Nelson, an Inventory Forester contracted by the Department of Nature Resources (DNR), reached out to FOPPI to ask if we could transport him to St. Martin Island to inventory a 1/6-acre plot. The primary challenge was determining how to access the island safely. We considered several options, including towing a boat or Zodiac, launching canoes or kayaks off The Shoreline, and navigating into the tricky harbor on the...

Volunteers replacing old decking on Plum Island's timber frame rock crib pier Seven volunteers with the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands (FOPPI) departed from Gills Rock aboard The Shoreline on September 18, 2026, to work on the Plum Island pier. The boat was piloted by Captain Scott Nelson with assistance from his crew member, Doug Smith. Both Nelson and Smith were stationed on Plum Island while serving in the Coast Guard. The Plum Island station was manned until 1990, at which time...